There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey, and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides, and thrown off all fetters.
Dh Chapter VII verse 90. Trans F. Max Muller
I found out a few days ago that Rob Burbea, Dharma teacher and author of the book A Seeing that Frees, died after a long illness. There is a nice piece on him on the Triratna main site and some lovely quotes from his book on Christopher Titmus’s blog.
I read his book earlier this year. I bought it a few years ago and got half way through, finding it a pretty difficult read if I’m honest. But I knew he was very ill and I wanted to read his book in it’s entirety while he was still alive, so I started it again. I liked the book before, but I felt like it went past anything I had experienced so it stopped being useful. This time I just wanted to read it to honour Rob and his work while he was still with us. I’m glad I read it. I still found it difficult at times but I just got the sense of a man who had amazing depth of practice, knowledge and experience of the Dharma.
While some things were indeed past anything I have even glimpsed in my own practice, this time I found that useful. Concepts such as perception, it’s relationship to grasping and the fading of grasping and fading of perception is not something that I personally have come close to. But I don’t think I need to come close to it to appreciate it. Just sitting with the possibility of notions like this for a while is helpful, beautiful even.
I found certain themes came through strongly for me. The relationship between insight and metta is inspiring and I very much appreciated Rob’s insistence on flexibility of views. I think we can get tangled up with concepts such as no-self and how they relate to kindness and other people, but understanding that all these are views and are useful at different times helps me untangle that knot. I’m certain I’ve only appreciated a small part of the book though; it’s a book I will be rereading in the years to come.
So Rob has finished his journey, in this life certainly. I celebrate his life and I am very grateful for his teachings. May all beings be well, may all beings be happy, may all being be free from suffering.